This is a blog about the networked economy - how collaborative offerings make the transition user friendly and how interoperable IT and standardised documents will save costs now and create the base for real time business processes.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Innovation leaps and bounds in banking

E-banking is one of the biggest innovations in banking - worth reflecting on from time to time.

So what was our WHY when we launched corporate e-banking in 1979? Mostly a question of speeding up payments and cutting costs by letting large enterprises have similar terminals in their offices as bank employees used in the back offices. In 1982 when e-banking for SMEs and private customers was introduced there was a different WHY.

Now it was about creating convenience - don't leave home for it - HomeUBF (kotiSYP). Initially it was for payments, gradually it expanded to all other services - all the way in thr mid90s to being able to sign loan documents electronically with the log-in codes. No need to travel to sign or for sending paper back and forth. Another innovation leap was realized when we discovered that this simple but strong and above all so familiar eID and e-signing tool can be used also between customers - citizen to public sector saving 100mplus in a small country like Finland.

Other leaps showed up when we realized that e-invoices can be transported as payments and e-salaries also - again the same WHY - convenience - economy of repetition.

And so it goes - now there is an immense platform of structured data with the ISO20022 global standard family support that can be used for the next WHY - mega improve corporate competitiveness in three dimensions:

1. Cutting admin cost in half,

2. Cutting cot of risk and

3. Improving finance and liquidity management - all with the same toolset.

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About Me

My background is in banking - 30 years altogether with particular focus on e-banking since 1982 when Union Bank of Finland launched home banking. Then I worked 7 years for Tieto (a leading North European IT Integrator) as VP and Head of Executive Advisors. My special interest is to demonstrate that the e-habit created in banking can be transferred to other services (business or public sector) and make take off faster as the enduser can reuse his e-trust and e-habit when the familar e-banking tools are re-used for new purposes - in practise embedded in other services. My present work as independent advisor includes chairmanship at ZEF Solutions and continued work in the Real Time Economy program.